I bought a Toyota boot kit containing both inner and outer boots as well as three tubes of grease. There were no instructions included so I searched for info on this but without luck. I called a friend at a local Toyota dealership if he knew and he asked one of the service techs. . . Guy said that the lighter color grease is a synthetic and needs to go in the outer boot, the darker goes in the inner boot.

I found this incredibly hard to believe since there are two tubes of the darker grease that would (going by what the tech says) go in the smaller of the two boots. . .

Not believing this and wanting a second opinion I messaged a friend of mine to ask his father who I know personally and is a master tech at Toyota. He told me the complete opposite. . "Lighter in inner, dark in outer" which makes more sense to me but I wanted to pick some more brains to be completely sure. What's your opinion?

Just make sure you clean the bearings and race thoroughly. Have you already taken them apart? If not, pay VERY CLOSE attention to detail with out the bearings and race came out, putting them back together was a headache for me. Just having a clean work bench helps a lot that way you can set the bearings into the race with it sitting on the bench.

206st165 wrote:If not, pay VERY CLOSE attention to detail with out the bearings and race came out, putting them back together was a headache for me.

No kidding! The inner CV joint fell apart while removing the shaft and it took me a long time to get the orientation correct. Even after figuring that out I still had to figure out how to get all 6 bearings in there! It amazes me how easily the bastards will fall out as compared to getting them back in. Many curse words were yelled along with throwing things trying to get this inner joint assembled. My worried GF would come out to the garage every time I threw a fit thinking something was wrong. . . I compared assembling this inner joint to her, comparing it to one of those silly puzzles like this. . or this. .Saying that it could only go together one way and you just have to know how to do it.

After I mastered the inner joint I had to figure out how to disassemble the outer joint (that never happened)! The day ended with more profanity and banging in the garage, (completely destroying the shaft) till eventually calling O'Reillys to order a remanufactured shaft which I got for $44.99! If I could go back in time I would have said F! the boot kit (that I got for $40.54) and just bought the half shaft to avoid the time spent and frustration. Live and learn!

I feel your pain! 2-3 hours of curse words and I finally figured it out. But the putter one is actually the easy one, maybe you were to angry and ticked off like I was to come at it with a calm mind. Did they at least Give you a core exchange for the mangled shaft?

206st165 wrote:I feel your pain! 2-3 hours of curse words and I finally figured it out. But the putter one is actually the easy one, maybe you were to angry and ticked off like I was to come at it with a calm mind.

Probably so. . I would love to see how it should be done because I had it mounted in a vise hitting it with a large hammer and it never budged.

206st165 wrote:Did they at least Give you a core exchange for the mangled shaft?